Video: Sharpening for the web

Well the next step in our process for preparing this file to be viewed online or to send this with an e-mail is to sharpen and then to save this file using the Save for Web dialog. Let's clean up our Layers panel little bit. I'm not going to use this Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, because I created this curves layer, so I'll delete this by pressing Delete or Backspace. Next we need to duplicate that Background layer. To do so press Command+J or Ctrl+J, that's Command+J on the Mac or Ctrl+J on Windows. Now one of the things that we've learned about sharpening is that this sharpen layer, we want to change its blending mode to luminosity.

In Photoshop CS6 for Photographers, author, photographer, and teacher Chris Orwig explores Photoshop from the perspective of the photographer.

The course details the features and techniques behind enhancing and retouching photos, preparing them for print and online publishing, and much more. Chris demonstrates how to make basic edits in Camera Raw, develop and save color profiles, work with layers and selections, tone and sharpen, and retouch images while retaining their natural character.

Chris also shares some creative tips and project ideas, such as converting a photo to black-and-white and enhancing a portrait with hand-painted masks. The course also covers workflow details, such as organizing images in Bridge and Mini Bridge, optimizing Photoshop preferences, and calibrating your monitor.

Sharpening for the web

Well the next step in our process for preparing this file to be viewed online orto send this with an e-mail is to sharpen and then to save this file using theSave for Web dialog.Let's clean up our Layers panel little bit.I'm not going to use this Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, because I createdthis curves layer, so I'll delete this by pressing Delete or Backspace.Next we need to duplicate that Background layer.To do so press Command+J or Ctrl+J, that's Command+J on the Mac or Ctrl+J on Windows.Now one of the things that we've learned about sharpening is that this sharpenlayer, we want to change its blending mode to luminosity.

To do that, click on the layer Blending mode pulldown menu and here wecan choose Luminosity.Next step, navigate to the Filter pulldown menu and then choose Sharpen and Smart Sharpen.When it comes to sharpening for the web, typically you're going to want to use aradius of .1, .2 or .3.So you want to try to use the lowest radius possible in order to have thesharpening, in a sense, be really delicate and kind of distributed across the file.If you have a high radius with this type of a low-res file, you're going to seethat the edges just start to glow and it's going to look really unnatural.

By having a low radius, in a sense, it kind of evenly spreads the sharpeningacross the file without creating too many problems.With this file, it looks like .2 will work well, and then our amount is probablygoing to be somewhere around 100.Again, we're just looking for that extra little snap that we can see at this view.Next, click OK in order to apply that.Well now that we've done that, the last thing I want to do is I want to maskaway the sky, because I definitely do not want to sharpen any noise or detail in the sky.So here I'll use one of my selection tools, say like Quick Select and just paintacross this area of the image.

Hold down Option or Alt to paint away or to paint out of your selection in thearea of the building, like in this case, I painted in some of the building here,so you can Option+Click or Alt+Click and drag to deselect that.Now that we have the selection of the sky, what I actually need to do is toinvert the selection and you can either do this now by going to Select andchoosing Inverse or you can do it after the fact.Sp let me show you how we can do this after the fact, in case we make themistake of forgetting to invert the selection.

If we click on our Add layer mask icon, essentially what we have in this layeris just the sky, so we're just sharpening the sky.Exactly the opposite of what we actually want.So you can click in your mask and press Command+I on a Mac or Ctrl+I on Windowsto invert that selection.So now this sharpening is just on the building and not the sky.That's what we want.Our sky will now look much better.Well now that we have prepared this file by resizing it, applying that curvesadjustment, and also selectively sharpening the file, next we're ready to go tothat Save for Web dialog.

And because the Save for Web process is pretty important, let's go ahead andstop this movie here and then pick up where we left off in the next movie.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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